So the Duke Nukem 3d 20th Anniversary World Tour is going to be released soon, so in order to celebrate I decided to play Duke Nukem Forever again, to see if I hated it as much now as I did when I preordered it. So, do I still think it's the worst game ever? Well...no. I've certainly played games that were much worse. But I still think it's pretty bad.

Duke Nukem Forever is guilty of using just about every gimmick and cliche used in FPS games made in the 2000-2009 era, and I wish I was joking. Magically regenerating health, limited stamina, only being able to carry two weapons, forcing you to solve puzzles to progress, events where you either have to take control of a turret or drive a vehicle...you name it. But out of all these tired and overdone cliches, what really seals the coffin on this game for me is that this game is made up entirely of quicktime and scripted events, and the levels are so linear there's no room for any exploring whatsoever.

In other words, instead of the fast-paced and intense gameplay in a large map that required us to explore high and low for secrets, health, ammo and keys to progress, while at the same time trying not to die to entire armies of aliens? That's all been replaced with linear paths, scripted events and NPCs that refuse to let you progress until you've either killed a few aliens the game wanted you to kill, or force you to listen to meaningless dialogue that adds little or nothing to the game, but thought you should listen to it anyway.

So did Duke Nukem Forever do anything correctly? Kind of. Duke is still that womanizing horndog that we got to know and love in 1996 that spews one liners and cracks jokes. However, unlike Duke 3d where it was done with some moderation, this game feels like it was filled to the brim with almost nothing but toilet humor and nudity galore. Not necessarily a bad thing, but my goodness does it tend to get old quickly.

I didn't exactly expect Duke Nukem Forever to be a masterpiece after waiting for more than a decade for it to come out, but I did expect it to be something refreshing and new. Unfortunately it was neither of these things, and while I don't think it's the worst game ever, I've played far too many games that were just like it. 1.5/5.0

So the Duke Nukem 3d 20th Anniversary World Tour is going to be released soon, so in order to celebrate I decided to play Duke Nukem Forever again, to see if I hated it as much now as I did when I preordered it. So, do I still think it's the worst game ever? Well...no. I've certainly played games that were much worse. But I still think it's pretty bad. Duke Nukem Forever is guilty of using just about every gimmick and cliche used in FPS games made in the 2000-2009 era, and I wish I was joking. Magically regenerating health, limited stamina, only being able to carry two weapons, forcing you to solve puzzles to progress, events where you either have to take control of a turret or drive a vehicle...you name it. But out of all these tired and overdone cliches, what really seals the coffin on this game for me is that this game is made up entirely of quicktime and scripted events, and the levels are so linear there's no room for any exploring whatsoever. In other words, instead of the fast-paced and intense gameplay in a large map that required us to explore high and low for secrets, health, ammo and keys to progress, while at the same time trying not to die to entire armies of aliens? That's all been replaced with linear paths, scripted events and NPCs that refuse to let you progress until you've either killed a few aliens the game wanted you to kill, or force you to listen to meaningless dialogue that adds little or nothing to the game, but thought you should listen to it anyway. So did Duke Nukem Forever do anything correctly? Kind of. Duke is still that womanizing horndog that we got to know and love in 1996 that spews one liners and cracks jokes. However, unlike Duke 3d where it was done with some moderation, this game feels like it was filled to the brim with almost nothing but toilet humor and nudity galore. Not necessarily a bad thing, but my goodness does it tend to get old quickly. I didn't exactly expect Duke Nukem Forever to be a masterpiece after waiting for more than a decade for it to come out, but I did expect it to be something refreshing and new. Unfortunately it was neither of these things, and while I don't think it's the worst game ever, I've played far too many games that were just like it. 1.5/5.0